Researchers from UNC School of Medicine used a virtual reality system to give subjects the illusion that they were falling as they were walking on a treadmill. They found clear differences in reactions between people with multiple sclerosis and people of the same age without MS. The team states that these differences were not evident between the groups when they walked on the treadmill without the “falling” illusion in the virtual reality. These findings suggest that virtual reality tests may be beneficial in detecting early balance issues in these patients, helping to reduce falls and related injuries.
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Source:“Can optical flow perturbations detect walking balance impairment in people with multiple sclerosis?”. Brian P. Selgrade, Diane Meyer, Jacob J. Sosnoff, Jason R. Franz. PLOS ONE doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230202.
